Somewhere down the line, in the past couple of years, my life started to change. In a good way. The world didn’t change, but the way I viewed it, and the way I appreciated everything in it, did. I’d like to be able to say, yeah, I read some inspirational shit, or hit rock bottom, and knew I had to turn my life around, so I started doing this and that, and all those things that people advised about, and hey, look where it got me. But I can’t. Because it never happened like that.

I’ve heard so many stories just like that, interviewing students who have overcome multiple challenges in their lives to come out tops, get almost perfect grades, get awarded scholarships, and know exactly where their lives are headed. They’re like, 21. They’re standing at the welcoming threshold of an exciting decade that’s gonna see them go…